“Walter just wants to make himself interesting,” gibed Bess.
“Well, whatever I may have been, I’m all right now that you girls have undertaken to refine me,” replied Walter.
“I’m realizing more and more what a tremendous contract it is,” Cora came back at him. “But look at that girl over there? Isn’t she a beauty?”
“She isn’t hard to look at, for a fact,” said Jack judicially, as his eyes fell on the gypsy girl his sister had indicated. “I think I’ll get her to tell my fortune. I want to know whether I’m born to be hanged or drowned.”
“It’s safe to say that you’re booked for a long life anyway,” remarked Paul. “Only the good die young.”
The girl had seen that the party were regarding her with interest, and she came over to them.
“Do you ladies want to have your fortunes told?” she asked with a winning smile that showed two rows of beautiful white teeth.
The girls hesitated.
“Go ahead, girls, and show the sporting spirit,” urged Jack. “You can get the promise of a perfectly good husband for fifty cents. And that’s cheap in these days of high prices.”
“It’s more than some of them are worth,” laughed Belle.